| Chemosphere | |
|---|---|
 Chemosphere, 2012 | |
| Location | 7776 Torreyson Drive Los Angeles, California |
| Coordinates | 34°7′39.2196″N118°22′7.8240″W / 34.127561000°N 118.368840000°W /34.127561000; -118.368840000 |
| Architect | John Lautner |
| Architectural style(s) | Modernist |
| Owner | Private |
| Designated | 2004 |
| Reference no. | 785 |
  Location of Chemosphere in the Los Angeles metropolitan area | |
TheChemosphere is amodernist house inLos Angeles, California, designed byJohn Lautner in 1960. The building, which theEncyclopædia Britannica once called "the most modern home built in the world",[1] is admired both for the ingenuity of its solution to the problem of the site and for its uniqueoctagonal design.
The building stands on theSan Fernando Valley side of theHollywood Hills, just offMulholland Drive. It is a one-story octagon with around 2,200 square feet (200 m2) of living space. Most distinctively, the house is perched atop a 5-foot-wide (1.5 m) concrete column nearly 30 feet (9 m) high. This innovative design was Lautner's solution to a site that, with a slope of 45 degrees, was thought to be practically unbuildable. Because of a concrete pedestal, almost 20 feet (6 m) in diameter, buried under the earth and supporting the column, the house has survived earthquakes and heavy rains.[1] The house is reached by afunicular.[1]
Chemosphere is bisected by a central exposed brick wall with a fireplace, abutted by subdued seating, in the middle.[2] The original decoration was provided by John H. Smith, the first African American admitted to the National Society of Interior Designers.[3]
The lot had been given to a young aerospace engineer by his father-in-law; despite his own limited means, the engineer, Leonard Malin,[4] was determined to live there.[1] Malin had US$30,000 to apply to the project.[2] The cost to build Chemosphere, US$140,000 (equivalent to $1.49 million in 2024), was subsidized partly by barter with two sponsoring companies, theSouthern California Gas Company and the Chem Seal Corporation. Chem Seal provided the experimental coatings andresins to put the house together and inspired the nameChemosphere. (Lautner originally wanted to call the houseChapiteau.)[5] In the end Malin paid US$80,000 in cash. The Malins and their four children lived there until rising costs and the demise of theaerospace industry forced them to sell in 1972.[5]
In 1976, the house's second owner, Dr. Richard Kuhn, was stabbed to death there in a robbery by his lover and another man. The pair were subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison.[6][7][8]
By 1997, the interior had become run down; for over 10 years it had been rented out and used for parties and as a result the interior finishes had undergone major and anachronistic alteration.[1] Because of its unique design it proved to be a difficult sell and sat on the market for most of its time as a rental property.[1]
Since 1998, it has been the Los Angeles home ofBenedikt Taschen, of the German publishing houseTaschen, who has had the house restored; the only current problem with the residence is the relatively high cost of maintenance.[1][9] The recent restoration, by Escher GuneWardena Architecture, won an award from theLos Angeles Conservancy.[1] Preservation architect Frank Escher wrote the first book on Lautner a few years after moving to Los Angeles in 1988, and oversees the John Lautner Archives. During restoration the architects added details that were unavailable 40 years before, as the technology simply did not exist. The gas company tile was replaced by random-cut slate, which could not be cut thin enough in 1960, despite Lautner's desire for such a finish. The architects also replaced the original thick framed windows with frameless glass. Tashen commissioned apastiche rug by German painterAlbert Oehlen and a hanging lamp of bentplexiglas strips byJorge Pardo, a Los Angeles artist.
The Taschens planned to commission Dutch architectRem Koolhaas to build a large new guesthouse at the base of Chemosphere on the site once owned by Leonard Malin's in-laws. The new house was intended to hold an art collection and library and to provide rooms enough for the four children the Taschens have between them.[5] The plans were later cancelled due to fears the annex would visually compete with the main house.[2]
The Chemosphere was declared aLos Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2004.[10] It was also included in a list of all-time top 10 houses in Los Angeles in aLos Angeles Times survey of experts in December 2008.[11]
The house forms part of a retrospective of Lautner's work which was shown at theHammer Museum in Los Angeles between August and October 2008.[12]
The building was first used in a dramatic film as a futuristic residence in "The Duplicate Man", a 1964 episode of theABC TV-programThe Outer Limits, based on a science fiction story by American authorClifford D. Simak. Exterior scenes for the television episode were shot on location; a detailedsound stage set of the house's interior was built. The Chemosphere was also used in the 1984 filmBody Double, directed byBrian De Palma and it directly inspired a house in the 2000Charlie's Angels movie.[13] In 1996 the Chemosphere was represented asTroy McClure's (voiced byPhil Hartman) fictionalSpringfield hilltop mansion inThe Simpsons TV series.[14] It appears in the end credits of the 2015 Disney fantasy film,Tomorrowland, starring George Clooney.[15]
